The thing is that I am indulged in presenting the very best of Hindi-language cinema every year and I enjoy investing my precious time for the sensible readers and filmgoers who would like to know what honestly have been the best films under different categories. It is a common understanding that the film awards in India have lost its credibility by handing the awards mostly to the wrong hands from a very list of nominations. It exasperates me when the deserving individual or a film is not recognized on the stage in any given function.

For the past two years, I am making such a specific blog to recognize the contributions from the Indian films released in India in that specific calendar year. You may read my previous selections here in 2014 and 2015.

This blog will focus on the year 2016. Like before, I will segregate the categories in three different sections i.e., musical (5), technical (10), and major section (6). In most of the categories, I will brief a small explanation where I find necessary. In most of the categories, I will also make some honorable mentions which are the individuals or the films deserve to be counted among the best.

The above-mentioned films which miss all the recognitions below are to be believed that those films didn’t live up to my expectations. Also for your reading, let me clear that the films are not ranked in ‘Other Notable Works’.

MUSICAL SECTION

BEST BACKGROUND SCORE

TAPAS RELIA (DHANAK)

Other Notable Works:

Mikey McCleary (Waiting)

Studio Fuzz(M Cream)

BEST PLAYBACK SINGERS

There wasn’t a decent vocal competition in the year 2016. I have listened to a lot of tracks from the 4-5 successful music albums of the films and I found only a couple of male tracks from the same film and a few good female singing in the other films but still not good enough.

AMIT TRIVEDI (UDTA PUNJAB)

TECHNICAL SECTION

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

ASHIMA BELAPURKAR (PARCHED)

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

ANNA IPE & APARNA SUD (NEERJA)

Other Notable Work: Amardeep Behl (Parched)

BEST SOUND DESIGN

SUBHASH SAHU (NEERJA)

Other Notable Works:

Boby John (Dhanak)

Vinit D’Souza (Raman Raghav 2.0)

BEST SCENE

MADAARI

There have been few scenes in my mind which were quite outstanding. Like Aliya’s expressions of misery to Shahid in Udta Punjab, or Nawazuddin killing a family in Raman Raghav 2.0, or the hijacking scene in Neerja, or the final court scenes in Pink. But I decided to choose the winner between two of the best scenes of the year 2016. Shakun Batra’s marvelous direction bemused me about the selection of the best scene of the film. The plumber scene, Annu aunty in party scene, and the truths-revelation scene before the family photo all carried equal weight of remarkable sketch of a highly intense family drama. So undecided that I prefer to conclude the winning scene with Irrfan’s showstopper and a heart-melting scene from Madaari when he asks for whereabouts of his son in the hospital. Perhaps no one would bring the efforts what Irrfan did here and hence proved again why is he the most inspiring actor holding more demand in the global cinema than any other Indian. This scene really beats the others.

BEST EDITING

GAIRIK SARKAR (TE3N)

Other Notable Works:

Aarti Bajaj (Raman Raghav 2.0)

Monisha R Baldawa(Neerja)

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

MINGJUE HU (M CREAM)

Other Notable Work:

Chirantan Das (Dhanak)

Priya Seth (Airlift)

Jay Oza (Raman Raghav 2.0)

Satyajit Pande (Dangal)

BEST ACTION

Parvez Singh (Raman Raghav 2.0)

The action is not about larger-than-life supernatural fights. My science of understanding here says to me that the action is when the reality is bound to bring intensity in the screenplay. Violence is the key, torture is a form and dismantling the brain and eyes towards the seriousness of the buildup is where the finest of action qualifies. Neerja and Raman Raghav 2.0 were the only films in my mind. Neerja’s technical aspects helped to build the intensity from hijacking till the last attempt of escaping. Whereas Raman Raghav 2.0 was a silent screamer and a gritty writing making the viewers hopeless and disconsolate of any likelihood of survival, the bloodbath is a sine qua non.

BEST STORY

NITESH TIWARI (NIL BATTEY SANNATA)

MAJOR SECTION

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

RATNA PATHAK (KAPOOR & SONS)

Parched acting trio of Tannishtha, Radhika and Surveen was highly expected to surpass the expectations but the trio of Pink was a massive surprise to me. Alia Bhatt gave her remarkable presence in Kapoor & Sons.

Well, a pause in the clause is that the Indian theater actresses will eat your skull if they outplayed the emotional character. Shabana Azmi for Neerja and Ratna Pathak for Kapoor & Sons were the most standout performances from this category. It wasn’t easy to pick and ignore the other nor do I want any joint winners. But as per the capacity of acting and appeal on the screentime, Ratna had more space to suffer Mr. Kapoor and Sons than the mother of Neerja waiting for the updates after the hijacking incidence. Ratna had more time to fight and argue with more than an individual at a time than Shabana’s emotional resistance.

Other Notable Works:

Shabana Azmi (Neerja)

Kirti Kulhari (Pink)

Tannishtha Chatterjee (Parched)

Alia Bhatt (Kapoor & Sons)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

RISHI KAPOOR (KAPOOR & SONS)

The mad terrorist in Neerja was phenomenal as well as a highly potential debut of the singer Diljit Dosanjh in Udta Punjab. Rajkummar was decent in assisting Manoj Bajpayee in Aligarh and Vicky Kaushal is rapidly making his name with Masaan and 2.0. But the real focus was on the dadaji of the dysfunctional family in Kapoor & Sons.

Yes, the makeup has a prominent role in the building of the character which doubles the charm in the performance like how Amitabh brought the momentum in his Auro character in Paa after an extraordinary change in his stature and looks. But Rishi as a nonagenarian fittingly classified as the best dadaji whose role grew on the viewers with the growing heat in the disturbed family. Chintuji and Amitji are the only boys of the 70s badge who are regularly performing in the selective roles being recognized with the positive responses in today’s cinema. And this role again defines Rishi’s versatility in acting. The film would be incomplete if Rishi would not have been picked for this role.

Other Notable Works:

Jim Sarbh (Neerja)

Vicky Kaushal (Raman Raghav 2.0)

Diljit Dosanjh (Udta Punjab)

Rajkummar Rao (Aligarh)

BEST ACTRESS

ALIA BHATT (UDTA PUNJAB)

If there is any category which was the most impressive, that was the performances of the leading actresses in the films released in the year 2016. There is Swara Bhaskar who is rapidly becoming of the noticeable actresses who brought a spectacular performance to her credit in Nil Battey Sannata. The body language and the emotional details of her character-play were striking. Kalki’s strong CV continues to fill more golden pages with Waiting. Ash in Sarbjit was a surprise package. Throughout her acting career, this is easily her first and best acting performance. That is the other thing that Ash doesn’t resemble or remind us Dalbir Kaur but the director has really worked with Ash on her character. People were informing me that Taapsee has done a wonderful job in Pink and I was not coming out of my visual understanding after watching her in Chashme Baddoor. Taapsee Pannu displayed a powerful role and I hope she is not a one-role wonder lady.

As far as Alia is in the wacky race, she is my girl for this category. She is at the peak of her career and easily one of the fastest growing actresses in the Indian cinema. Alia does have a lot of help at home from her mother Soni Razdan who has pulled the strings of acting and playing mentally complicated characters in many of her husband’s films in the 80s and 90s, and papa Mahesh Bhatt who has been critical in making top-notch films in the parallel cinema. But then, it is the baby who has to face the camera and has every potential to make her name with acting greats like Shabana Azmi, Smita Patil, Tabu, or Nandita Das in very near future.

She began performing from Highway and sought attention from the sensible viewers including me. But 2016 is her best year ever with high-class performances in not one but three films (Kapoor & Sons, Dear Zindagi, and this). As far as the mental or physical challenge is the condition, it definitely is her role of Mary Jane in Udta Punjab which beats the other competitors in the wacky race. She has shown the misery of a girl stuck in the series of unfortunate events. You feel sorry for the character but when you feel apologetic, there is Alia’s success to justify the role she plays. Highway’s Veera Tripathi and Udta Punjab’s Mary Jane have suffered but their character-destruction from Alia’s visual presentation is different. Well done Alia.

Other Notable Works:

Swara Bhaskar (Nil Battey Sannata)

Taapsee Pannu (Pink)

Kalki Koechlin (Waiting)

Sonam Kapoor (Neerja)

Aishwarya Rai (Sarbjit)

BEST ACTOR

MANOJ BAJPAYEE (ALIGARH)

If you are mature enough to understand the credibility of the actor and his substance of a performance in a given screentime, you will realize that the award functions in India are commercialized which depends on revenue and care less for the individuals who deserve the award at the right time in their lives. In 2015, Filmfare omitted Sanjay Mishra for Ankhon Dekhi, who was a clear winner in the category of Best Actor. Last year, Filmfare omitted Nawazuddin for Manjhi who actually was the most deserving individual to win the category of Best Actor. And now a hattrick of blunder is completed with Manoj Bajpayee’s turn who lost his place to get into the nominations. And most of the viewers will raise the eyebrows over the quality of decision making by the juries who repeatedly add box-office mahatmas, Salman Khan and Shahrukh Khan, in the category almost every year from nowhere.

This is easily Bajpayee’s best performance ever and is the toughest character of a homosexual teacher he can play. The best part of the role is his complexity towards the sexual orientation for which he is suspended and bringing his ass to the court. He has a portion of love for the lettering and listening to Lata’s songs but overall a disturbed soul. He is a departed loner but expects people to understand him. Bajpayee has given the word ‘Tragedy’ a fresh cinematic meaning. A wonderful and very underrated performance I subject to recognize here.

Besides, Shahid enjoys another successful year with another role of a maniac, this time in Udta Punjab. Shahid is like Saif Ali Khan who is reintroduced to the viewers as a promising actor not to ignore. After a series of repeated failures, Shahid is finally off the mark from Haider. Irrfan’s Madaari is another brutal omission from the same category in Filmfare and you will be surprised to know that besides Paan Singh Tomar, he has never been nominated in this category in Filmfare.

Naseer sir in Waiting is magnificent as always in almost every film which he is part of. Amitabh had three different roles in Wazir, Pink, and Te3n, and I must say that Amitji at this age has become more choosy in his roles than ever. Since 2015, he has played some very good roles in Shamitabh, Piku, and the above-mentioned films. If I have to pick between the three, it would be Te3n.

By watching his superior performances in first Badlapur and now Raman Raghav 2.0, I am fully convinced that if in any timeline the Batman franchise happens to drop in Indian cinema, the only actor who can play the role of the Joker is Nawazuddin Siddiqui. His latest role of a psychotic killer will disturb you, by watching this performance you will never wish to meet him. What Randeep did in Sarbjit was the most dedicating among all the best performances of 2016. He lost 18 kgs in 28 days to justify his role in the prison life. Randeep presents you the pain of being an unfortunate and displays an impressive emotional drop and terrific body language. He makes the viewers feel when he groans and express his pain to Aishwarya in the prison.

Other Notable Works:

Shahid Kapoor (Udta Punjab)

Irrfan Khan (Madaari)

Naseeruddin Shah (Waiting)

Randeep Hooda (Sarbjit)

Nawazuddin Siddiqui (Raman Raghav 2.0)

Amitabh Bachchan (Te3n)

BEST DIRECTOR

GAURI SHINDE (DEAR ZINDAGI)

Besides the names mentioned below, the competition for this category, in my opinion, was between Shakun Batra and Gauri Shinde. Both were the masterclass in utilizing the scripts. But I picked Gauri the winner from this category. Shakun’s impressive direction has a blend of major other aspects involved like very realistic dialogues, a lot of impressive performances within a scene etc but Gauri’s direction heavily depends on Alia’s character growth in the film especially a very important first half before Shahrukh is introduced.

Other Notable Works:

Shakun Batra (Kapoor & Sons)

Ram Madhvani (Neerja)

Anurag Kashyap (Raman Raghav 2.0)

Abhishek Chaubey (Udta Punjab)

Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury (Pink)

BEST FILM

KAPOOR & SONS

I mean what else? what really else can be a better film than Kapoor & Sons? A decent family drama which portrays/sketches a dysfunctional family with mix elements of humor and suspense. The film has no nonsense of silly masala, item numbers or unnecessary cameo appearances despite the fact that the film was produced under the banner of Dharma Productions. Then the film is very honest to its script and describes a shattered bond in a very distinctive way.

There are numerous amazing scenes which catch our attention swiftly because we are accustomed to our domestic life especially the plumber scene. Then the revelation of secrets and a tragic accident. The film touches your heart. The remaining plusses are left with superb performances from all the major cast. Everyone has his share and their roles carry the same depth. And that is the beauty of the film that there is no leading character. Every major character is supporting to the other.

Now who was Rudolf Abel? Shortly speaking, Abel was born in UK to Russian émigré parents, which means born to the couples living in political exile. He served Soviet military and fought against Nazis in WWII. After the war, he lived as spy in US where years later he was caught by FBI. The director began his part in the movie from here and I think that was a good decision.

The movie has two phases blended splendidly. One is Donovan/Abel phase and the other is Powers/Pryor phase. The other phase is story of two Americans. Francis Gary Powers was American pilot whose CIA spy plane was shot down by the Soviets in 1960 and Frederic Pryor, a graduate student, was caught by East German police without any charge a year later, who was studying there since 1959.

Spielberg offers sharp visual historic presentation of the famous exchange occurred in Glienicke Bridge. The famous exchange scene has been shot at very same historic site. The dare and gallantry of James B.Donovan is well explained, his wit saved Abel’s hugely expected hanging sentence into a 30-year imprisonment which turned into nationwide massive shock.

When it comes to tell history, the most important aspect to the viewers and readers is ‘deep intensity’. Spielberg successfully sketches deep realistic intensity hitting your head hard, specially at two different scenes. One is the court scene when the judge declares Abel’s punishment to 30 years instead of hanging, next 5 minutes are the peak of boiling points. The other scene is Donovan witnessing Berlin Wall shooting, facial expressions of Tom Hanks who plays Donovan here are priceless.

Bridge of Spies is committed with 90% historical accuracy with slight alterations i.e., all critical points under the incidents happened and presented in the movie are true. Spielberg’s frequent collaborator John Williams did join to compose movie’s score but left for Thomas Newman due to health issues but Newman justified his musical presence and didn’t make us miss John’s score. Production and costume designs were super-excellent, one simply cannot expect an error in these two departments as Speilberg has been veteran of many many historic movies.

Pace is slow but adaptable. Mark Rylance as Rudolf Abel is a showstopper who deservingly won Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for this role. Overall, Bridge of Spies is a decent history digging movie from a very important time-zone of the 20th century.

Since I became a blogger writing sporadic pieces, I have given my opinion for most of the movies I have watched. There was a time when I used to watch Hindi movies with utter passion but now I hang my glasses. With calendar year passing by, my rate of watching Hindi-language movies have fallen drastically low now. Reasons are many but majorly what is lacking in nowadays Hindi-movies is a material which make you invest your time quality.

Bollywood still in its second decade of the century majorly lacks stories on which a perfect screenplay can be implemented and put to work. Quality of acting is not sublime and no matter how good the music sounds, the worse are the lyrics. Every beginning of the year, Bollywood and its pundits, moviegoers and viewers are focused on the most prestigious movies award, FILMFARE. Unfortunately, Filmfare also do not justify most of the awards and have richly fallen under the good-pockets and well-known showbiz families.

In last five years, I have noticed a slight change in movie production companies introducing new faces or encouraging some deserving talents and publicizing their image and promoting their movies on high-scale. In 2014, contrary to my expectations, I have watched some good movies. I chose almost 25 movies from the list of Hindi-language movies of last year from Wikipedia, which helped me increase my options of deciding to pick a promising movie. Some were disappointing but some were exciting.

Today in this blog, I present you my Bollywood’s best of 2014 from most of the categories I have scrutinized. This is the first time I am blogging for Bollywood and will also publish for Hollywood in near future. I will discuss most of the categories if not all and mention some noteworthy names related to that category. The categories are under three different sections. So here I go;

TECHNICAL SECTION

BEST CHOREOGRAPHY

SUDESH ADANA (BISMIL – HAIDER)

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

There are two prominent features in Dedh Ishqiya which gives you detailed texture – dialogues and costumes. Most of the shooting was done in Mahmudabad Palace near Barabanki. As per the script, ancient Urdu era was revitalized with royalty. So this adds major concern with two aforementioned features. Payal Saluja (Raanjhanaa, Ishqiya, Maqbool) has done fantastic work with costume designing and her first marks will raise your eyebrows when the attendees will gather in royal party in Begum Para’s Haveli. Excellent dress-work on Naseeruddin Shah and Huma Qureshi and most impressively on Madhuri Dixit.

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

TABASHEER ZUTSHI (MISS LOVELY)

Ashim Ahluwalia offers a close look on the C-grade pulp Hindi-cinema of the eighties which used to make cheap horror-porn movies. It is a bold movie with independent theme where the director exposes backstage dealings behind the curtains and problems in shooting such movies in the past. With such script on the floor, all what matters to make the movie so special is costume and production designing. If this movie proved its worth on global cinematic village, then full marks to aforementioned designing works, both projected by Tabasheer Zutshi.

BEST SOUND DESIGN

One of few impressive factors from Imtiaz Ali‘s road-movie is Alia Bhatt, ARR’s background score, attractive locations and sound designing. Rahman-Resul musical duo has proved winner most of the times and also have unforgettable achievement of bagging Academy Awards for Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire. Although A.R.Rahman was off-color with average tracks but the sound designer was in full form.

BEST SCENE

BEST EDITING

Aarti Bajaj was the first spouse of Anurag Keshyup and is regular movie editor for Anurag Kashyup and Imtiaz Ali movies. She is very responsible their successful movies. The beauty of moviemaking lies in editing and my pick is Ugly. Ugly has a lot of turns, script will fold you and different characters will puzzle you. Body smashing in traffic accident in same frame was pretty unnatural but the next scene of interrogation in police station is very realistic. For me that was one of the best scenes of 2014, the reason is it was almost a 7-minute interrogation scene. Normally such scenes bore you but the editing is so marvelous that the scene grows and boils in your nerves. The way the Indian police takes the case so light is fantastically shot and well acted. Besides, scenes of driving, phone calls, searching and beatings and many more brings a true color of translating a fiction into reality. Wonderful editing!

BEST ACTION

Sorry if anyone feel this pick offensive. I don’t have that level of enthusiasm for supernatural, unrealistic and larger-than-life action movies of Indian movie industry. A lot of rage and fury, tortures and scorcher, gunshots and beatings. Ugly gives you a powerful display of action.

BEST SCREENPLAY

It was tough for me to pick the movie with the most outstanding screenplay. Yes PK deserves this credit. This pair Hirani/Joshi is enjoying the booming period of scripting one of the best movies viewers have witnessed since the last decade. Under Vinod Chopra Films, they have scripted Munnabhai series, then 3 Idiots and now PK. Every aforementioned movie has a message, a rising voice towards the system transforming to roar over changing the system. Being comical in nature, their scripts marvelously have touched almost every viewer’s heart to fully accept the nature of movie. Every time their movies successfully inspires us with their trend-setting catchy dialogues. PK is no less than a revolution.

Both writers introduce an alien in the country of religions, hundreds of languages and cultures. He misses a gadget and in quest loses his edge and adapts the local language. Meanwhile he suffers a colossal hindrance towards different religious ways of breathing life. With the flow of script pulling the strings, the screenplay brilliantly develop characters to assist the alien to meet an end. Just another golden egg in their basket! Take a bow guys!

BEST DIALOGUES

ANURAG KASHYUP (UGLY)

Natural!!!! very very lively and natural. No matter if that is a sick Shalini, tortured Chaitanya, opportunist Siddhant or furious Shoumik; dialogues are not on paper but well expressed on lips. Viewer/listener will never feel an inch of unoriginality of conversation. As more there is intense, the more the dialogues burn you. Best examples are the 7-minute interrogation scene as mentioned before and where Shoumik send Rahul to the prison where Chaitaniya is imprisoned and eating food. Wonderful job Keshyup sir!

BEST STORY

Ok the readers perhaps or surely will raise their eyebrows over this selection hehe but I am free to pick what I find more deserving. Many of you haven’t seen this movie and I promise you that the movie itself is below-average. But what attracts me the most is its story which is quite thought-provoking

Yeh Hai Bakrapur is a low-budget social satire based on rural part of India who blindly follow their faith. One small kid loves his goat and he doesn’t want it to get sold but his poor family has no solution to repay the debt. One young man who loves the kid’s sister, comes with a brilliant plan with the goat by painting the name ‘Allah’ on goat’s skin which makes the entire gaoonwalay fell in ultimate impression and belief that the goat is an angel and will be a sin to sell or sacrifice it. This rural blind faith following sketch is the bitter truth and a daring dilemma which speaks a lot of depth about the deception and extreme trust over something. Unfortunately the direction was painful which bombed a very scintillating subject.

MAJOR SECTION

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

She is my automatic pick. One of the finest actresses in Hindi-cinema always adapt the skin of the character. She has played many different roles and in Finding Fanny, she maintains her rythm. Dimple is Mrs. Rosalina “Rosie” Eucharistica, the self-appointed ‘Lady’ of Pocolim and mother-in-law of Deepika’s character Angie. She is over-proudy for nothing and her nose touches the clouds. Some terrific screenplays eases acting gurus to add another highlight in their CV. Brilliant display of acting.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Tough one but this one is the best. It is no surprising for me that this man is one of the most underrated actors in Hindi cinema. His quality is that he makes the viewers observe him. He made his name from Rajat Kapoor’s Raghu Romeo. If small B’s not well-known movie ‘Run’ was a 50-50, then this ‘Kawwa Biryani’ actor was highly praised for his comedy. Amir Khan’s Delhi Belly was centered on three partners in crime but Vijay was again a specific name in talks. Now in Dedh Ishqiya, he plays another villainous role of Jaan Mohammad who is MLA-gangster of Mahmudabad. He doubles his poetry skills word-to-word copying from another poet to win Begum Paara’s heart, marry her and become the Nawab of Mahmudabad. The fury is hidden in his role as the greediness of the character gashes with the wait of approval from Begum Para. This Vijay Raaz deserves one prestigious award in his lifetime before lifetime achievement award.

BEST ACTRESS

Although there have been many ladies in 2014 with majestic performances but none reach the clouds where Kangana was heavily raining. Kangana’s role of Rani Mehra in Queen is unanimous. She plays the role of a middle-class girl who wishes to spend her honeymoon with her soon-to-be husband in Paris. At the last moment, the man unties the knot and with all soreness of life knocking at a wrong time with tickets in hand, she decides to visit Paris by herself and breathe the life. There begins east-meet-west and sweet simple Delhi girl experience an unforgettable journey and befriends with people from different nationalities.

The flow of story looks unnatural at most of the times but let’s focus on Kangana. Since her debut, she looked promising and finally a feast is served as she displays her best performance ever. Her facial expressions are soooo natural and normal behavior towards unexpected Parisian lifestyle is fantastic. She will make you feel when her fiancé will inform her breakup in the beginning. She will make you stare when she will struggle to dance in the bar. You can’t ask for more than that. Queen is very Kangana-show.

BEST ACTOR

Yeah it was a healthy competition between the three. Two were the most popular and the one was ignored at many functions (most probably because he don’t carry the personality which may give him stardom). I pick the latter because I believe Sanjay Mishra ran the character in fact the whole script on his strings with a perfect note. As compared to the competitors, the movie wasn’t popular to the house of commons like PK and Haider but he was solely responsible to bring the movie to fame.

Sanjay plays Bauji from Dilli’s gharib-khana who has compromised with his ego to accept only those things as reality in life which he has witnessed by himself. Impact? He loses his job, his brother & family separates home, his philosophical thoughts bring many close neighbors his devotees. It is not only about the definition of his character but the aura he brought into it. Sanjay is a thespian and Bauji is melodramatic.

The character of Bauji will make you realize how comfortable how meaningful and how relief is the life you choose in the loud noisy world in your surroundings. People will laugh at you, make fun of you, of your wit and philosophy but you will remain calm. As the movie grows on you, you begin to judge him more, you begin to find him realistic more, you see yourself in him. As a father and a brother, you see the same Bauji in two different dimensions. He is an ass, a clown without makeup and a simple man who has everything to lose. Story of a terrible man with irreparable fate. Truly the best performance of the year!!

BEST DIRECTOR

Is Finding Fanny an Indian movie? I doubt, I really doubt. It will take the whole duration of movie to find out that it is an Indian movie because of its extremely rich portray of realistic sketching of realism and technicality of movie making. When you watch this, you will feel watching a Western European movie. Homi Adajania directed Being Cyrus and Cocktail before this.

From comedy to suspense, it is absolute entertainer. The characters are defined in the beginning, the story is developed and sprinted without any nonsense. Screenplay and editing of the movie has also played a major part to praise the director’s efforts to make such an incredible movie.

Why direction is so effective? Why this movie looks different from the others? Because of Pocolim? To some degree, I agree but Homi’s homework paid off. To make the movie look creative, natural and very realistic, Homi spent a month in village Salvador do Mundo of Goa and researched/learnt its culture and local Goan Catholics. Superb direction!!

BEST MOVIE

The last and most important category of my picking. Mithiya Talkies produced thought-provoking Ankhon Dekhi directed by Rajat Kapoor. Some movies are clobber dimensional and some are socially inspirational. Ankhon Dekhi is Rajat Kapoor’s miss call to those who have lost the battle of survival in life, who have gone hopeless to see the change and who have borrowed some time to ease and overcome their agony.

In old Dilli gharana lives the patriarch, Bauji. He lives in a small house with his family combined with his brother’s family. Has a job on which he just survives. Has a daughter who has an affair with a vagabond. Has a wife who is no less than a heater. After a lot of problems circulating on his head, he decides to accept only those things as reality which he has witnessed himself. This philosophy gives Bauji some disciples, but in off state he loses his job applying this philosophy, his brother shifts to new home with his family sick of him. Bauji has everything to lose.

Ankhon Dekhi has everything to impress you. Impressive story, brilliant screenplay, social satire, natural dialogues, simple costumes, one of best performances by any ensemble cast of 2014. It had tough competition in this category but I found Ankhon Dekhi reclusive. A wonderful movie!!

Curtains raise and the show begins with no silly nonsense or boring beginning. Two main characters are remotely defined. One is first-year Jazz student Andrew who is hugely inspired from the legendary Jazz drummer, Buddy Rich, and wants to make his name as a Jazz drummer like him. The other character is Dr. Terence Fletcher, who is very stern and abusive Jazz instructor at Shaffer. In microseconds, he judge the music player and promote/demote him.

As the characters are potentially well described in first 15 minutes, the next is creating a charisma in student-teacher bond. With above intros of the core characters, it is merely understood what to expect but let the bargaining of your choice be settled in the classroom where they share a bravura for your best moments of watching a high-class drama.

Let me assure you, no sweat will dry, no bandage will stop blood, no sound will go mute. You will remain attentive till the end. Your ears will have an orgasm when Andrew will be all set to perform on a big stage in the final act.

When you make a drama movie based on music or a movie based on a life of a musician, the most important element is sheer MADNESS. You have to make the viewer crazy from every inch of presentation specially the character’s relation with the instrument he/she marries. That potential is also watched when lil Buddy and smashing teacher cross all the limits to produce one legitimate and accepted sound of a beat. When the music is played, LOVE is to feel every inch of its beat that drives you to other level. Insanity is must and if you are addicted to music, then ‘Whiplash’ is an absolute marijuana.

Whiplash is a hardcore musical drama written and directed by 30-year-old Damien Chazelle. Movie is inspired from director’s real life experience. Damien is the real-life Andrew who struggled to make it as a Jazz drummer in high school at Princeton High School.

The director gives full justice with Jazz music and remembers legendary Buddy Rich on a higher note. It is very sophomore effort of Damien Chazelle to revitalize the genre of drama and give music a new meaning to life with psychological intensity. It will hit you hard specially those who made music their path but failed or gave up.

Why Whiplash has marvelous creation of intensity? The major reason is the burning heart and boiled rage of filmmaker towards its being a rel-life story-line which inspires him to present originality and give freshness of characters as part of his life.

Miles Teller and J.K.Simmons have played the characters Andrew Neiman and Dr. Terence Fletcher respectively. I must admit both have given equal respect to the roles they played and have done a terrific job. I am trying to understand why Miles Teller wasn’t nominated for ‘Best Actor’ in recently concluded Academy Awards. This actor at least deserved the nomination.

The other side of coin, J.K.Simmons, has presented or shall I say augmented a supreme skill of acting. I doubt if he even was acting or what? How can anyone be so natural? His presentation of pedagogy is a silent whisper. He looks devil but teaches gospel. Superb body language and remarkable portraying of a highly demanding music teacher who will offend you to any level but make you a perfect music player. I will not rate him less than 9.8/10 if I am asked to judge his acting on rating scale.

You are an ass if you reject this masterpiece. No doubt, one of best pictures of 2014.

While I was hanging on Facebook and trying to put my effort on jumping towards the conclusions of the year 2013 and pickings from different aspects of film making, up comes the idea from my subconscious mind that why don’t I blog my choices? Sounds a great idea!!!

It is good to see that readers from many parts of the world get connect with the WordPress and by chance read my blogs. Academy Awards function will take place on March 2, 2014, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles. I was terribly waiting for most of English-language movies of 2013 to watch in good print. Downloaded the movies I needed to watch (mostly Academy Awards nominated) at minimum 720p. I have watched them in last couple of months and I sincerely am thankful to my readers and friends on Facebook recommending me the movies of last year.

So here is my pick from 2013 English-language movies whether nominated in Academy or not:

Best Production Design:

The Great Gatsby

We know what Baz Luhrmann is capable of. He is well-know for making stylish and very fashionable movies like Romeo + Juliet (1996) and Moulin Rouge! (2001). Here he does the same as F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby always demanded a ravishing look into the lifestyles of the Buchanan’s and parties of the Gatsby. Baz left me no option to look elsewhere.

Best Production Design – The Great Gatsby

Best Costume Design: The Great Gatsby

So I forgot to propel you that F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby not only demanded a ravishing look into the lifestyles of the Buchanan’s and parties of the Gatsby, but the novel also raises the significance of the dresses, the uniforms, the wardrobes to be used as per fashion and hugely fitting into a high-society urbanized life to convince and portray how the novel grows the writings on you. Catherine Martin was the lady hugely responsible for Moulin Rouge’s success as she went on to win 2 Academy Awards for Art Direction and Costume Designing for that movie. And once again she is just beyond the class in costume designing for The Great Gatsby. Bravo!

Best Costume Design – The Great Gatsby

Best Sound Mixing: Gravity

Although I didn’t like this space movie but few elements were inviting. One of them was the sound blowing in your ears. The volume at space the movie spoke produce hysteria. By listening Sandra Bullock in her misery and trying to connect with the team, you are rubbing your ears as if you are trying to connect with them. Plays a vital role and that is where Gravity convince me.

Best Sound Mixing – Gravity

Best Sound Editing: Rush

Vrrrrrroooooooooooooommmm, gear shifting, breaks, pressing accelerator hard. An epic F1 race between two great racers need that sound. Viewers need to feel the beat. Sound engineering has been a lusty ear therapy and it grows more in your eardrums with the intensity of battle on track between the two.

Best Sound Editing – Rush

Best Music, Original Score: About Time

When it comes to writing music score for the movie, then it is supposed to be musical enough to make the screenplay and scenes of the movie catchy. That is the quality the musicians like Vangelis, Gabriel Yared, Hans Zimmer and Gustavo Santaolalla have, their scores flow and grow in the movie. Chariots of Fire, The English Patient, Dark Knight trilogy and Babel are such great examples.

About Time is a British movie directed by Richard Curtis, and with a disciplined film-making as the screenplay appealed, music score needed a heavy influence. Nick Laird-Clowes satisfies my ears from act 1 scene 1, when narration and intro begins. I must mention that Gravity and Rush are the other two which impressed me in this department but About Time is my pick.

Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay) – The Wolf of Wall Street “even this scene is true”

Best Writing – Original Screenplay: Nebraska

But when it comes to original screenplay, then I find strong competition between Ron Howard’s “Rush”, Spike Jonze’s “Her” and Alexander Payne’s “Nebraska”. Rush is sports drama film based on true events while Her is sci-fi romantic comedy film not close to reality. But Nebraska is a pure leather from alligator. Making the movie in black-and-white presents a poetic theme + an amazing father-son chemistry produces a gem. Screenwriter Bob Nelson did a timeless and terrific story writing and this was his debut in movie as screenplay writer.

Best Writing (Original Screenplay) – Nebraska

Best Supporting Actress: Jennifer Lawrence – American Hustle

She didn’t impress me in ‘Silver Linings Playbook’ also directed by David O. Russell. But this movie is the real platform. JL is Rosalyn, wife of Irving played by Christian Bale. She is a mad lady who suddenly loses her temper. Mad in love with hubby will never file a divorce. Her role is shorter than the rest of all major characters in the movie but it is about influence and demand of her character developing in the script in the next half. Body language, facial variations, voice tone flexibility are just close to perfection. She richly deserves ‘Best Supporting Actress’ award on 2nd of March.

Best Supporting Actress – Jennifer Lawrence

Best Supporting Actor: Jared Leto – Dallas Buyers Club

Although I am not a lot in Jared Leto movies but by chance I watched him in Jean-Marc Vallée’s Dallas Buyers Club. This was one of the best roles played in 2013. Jared Leto plays Rayon, a transgender woman, who suffers with HIV, joins fellow HIV fellow Ron Woodroof played by Matthew McConaughey as his business partner who will bring more HIV patients to Ron to join the Dallas Buyers Club. The role of Rayon was fictional and didn’t exist in reality but there are two most important aspects in this role. First thing is body transformation, he lost 30 pounds (14 kg) for the role. Secondly, the role itself. You won’t find Jared Leto in the role, he/she played an incredible role.

Best Supporting Actor – Jared Leto

Best Actress: Cate Blanchett – Blue Jasmine

How could I not pick Cate Blanchett for this category? This Woody Allen movie is not at all about his direction, it is first about her and perhaps has played her finest performance of career so far. Jasmine is an elite Manhattan socialite who is married to 9 years elder wealthy business magnate Hal played by Alec Baldwin. Things go against her and lose a huge fortune. She is mentally broken and financial status is badly wrecked.

It is almost impossible to read or measure her mental capacity when it comes to play a character in tantrum. She beautifully manage her character when she is normal, when she is about to burst out, when she is talking to herself or when she gets angry. So many times, viewers including me won’t understand her timing, we simply are not able to analyze the whole temperament. I will be surprised if she didn’t bag ‪AcademyAward‬ for ‎BestActress on 2nd of March‬.

Best Actress – Cate Blanchett

Best Actor: Matthew McConaughey – Dallas Buyers Club

Well to be honest it was a very hard decision. I was stuck between him, Chiwetel Ejiofor for “12 Years A Slave”, Bruce Dern for “Nebraska” and Robert Redford for “All is Lost”. Besides Robert Redford, all are nominated for ‘Best Actor’ this Academy Award, so whoever wins between the three are deserving for me. I made my mind and picked McConaughey above them.

He is Ron Woodroof, who suffers HIV and the doctor has marked his death in maximum 30 days (but actually dies in 6 years). Like Jared Leto, he has transformed his body by losing 47 pounds (21 kg) for the role. Secondly, the aggression, the accent, the body language will take you to some other heights. In short, McConaughey has produced one gem of a performance which perhaps will remain highlight of his career.

Best Actor – Matthew McConaughey

Best Director: Martin Scorsese – The Wolf of Wall Street

Need no introduction, but he produce a gem in almost every movie he directs. This time it is The Wolf of Wall Street. It is Jordan Belfort’s memoir which he adapted. It is 180-minute movie with 569 eff-words, the length you don’t expect to see in English movies but the quality is it will not bore you. The Belfort story will slowly slowly grow on you, things will be presented in such a way that you will ignite in their environment. Money, drug, sex are Scorsese’s favorite elements and will satisfy and propel you. With a critical subject, Scorsese has directed far better than other directors in my view.

Best Director – Martin Scorsese

Best Picture: Nebraska

And now my final say. Apparently the most understood movies, which I believe were the finest products of the year 2013 were Nebraska, Dallas Buyers Club, The Wolf of Wall Street, Her and Rush. I am very surprised Ron Howard’s “Rush” is nominated nowhere in Academy Awards categories. Anyhow, out of these 5 pictures, my pick is Nebraska. It is a story entirely different from the other four.

Nebraska is a case study of father-son chemistry on a simple plot. The old man is alone and he foolishly thinks he really won a million-dollar lottery. No one at his home trusts him but he is stubborn. His young son finally makes his mind to take him to Nebraska where he is supposed to collect his prize. It is a tale of a lifetime, a moment for old man to cherish once. The black and white concept of the movie produce a poetic nature. Every scene is like a hidden message. Truly the best picture of 2013…